I knew that there would be a market for “gadget jewellery”, but this bling-iPod shuffle from the Norwegian Jeweller Thomas Heyerdahl in Oslo is just a bit over the top, being priced at â‚¬31.000/US $41.000. The shuffle is adorned by a total of 430 diamonds, with 312 used for the player and 118 used for the earbuds.

Looking at the “diggs” this gadget is getting, it’s a great marketing stunt by Heyerdahl. The iPod is “iconic”, but I think that it would have been much more interesting if they had made an exclusive design, instead of relying on a $79 industrial design. OTOH, linking up with the hyped Apple brand is probably a smart move, and it’s unlikely that I’d heard about it, if they had done an exclusive design.

Personally I find the details about how the gadget was manufactured, much more interesting than the gadget itself.

Produced for Heyerdahl by: Diaro Digital Design – Robert de Brueijs / The Netherlands / www.diaro.nl

3D production: CAD / CAM 3D design / Rhinoceros

Wax model made by: Solidcape T66Bt2 Wax printer.

Casting method: Vacuumcasting

Diamond setting: Handcrafted micro Pavè setting.

Details engraved: Laser engraved details

Details about iDiamond aren’t available on the Diaro Digital Design website, but I suppose that they’ll update their site soon.
The pictures that accompanies this article were copied from the Heyerdahl website, and are most likely copyright Gullsmed Heyerdahl A.S., I consider my use of the pictures to be fair use.

The big question here for the start-ups and opinion formers is how to use Web 2.0’s focus on community to build the next generation of web tools and become Europe’s Web 2.0 poster child.

I guess I can forgive the BBC, since the feature is “more than decent” ;-), and they capture some of the spirit of reboot in this quote:

This year’s conference theme is Human? with many speakers grappling with such deep philosophical queries as what it means to be human. One session was called Humanism 101.

Understanding human behaviour and how to adapt those behaviours to technology and the web rather than the reverse is rare for technology devotees.

And Last.fm deserves all the love in the world, iTunes might never know what hit them.

However, it is no surprise as the big subject in the bars and on the grass outside was this week’s sale of London social software music service Last.fm.

Its creator Martin Stiskel, explaining why US broadcaster CBS would want to buy a music preference tool said: “They want to move from a content company to an audience company, giving the audiences control and learning from this and that’s why Last.fm was their choice.”

I’m nominating Last.fm for the price of being the “greatest service on the planet”, even though it makes it look like I have absolutely no taste in music – is it about time to get more discriminating, and start “acting my age, not my shoesize” – nah some people have actually expressed love for my personal radiostation ;-), and I get shouts like this:

Missing the brainshift experienced from talking to all the brilliant rebooters? Keep the conversation going between reboots here…

It’s a good idea – that would have been even better, if it was set up, officially, through the reboot website, but because website technologies change all the time, the use of a relatively low-tech solution, like a mailing-list, is a not as bad an idea as it sounds – e-mail still is “the lowest common denominator”.

This might help to avoid the frustrations I experienced, when I learned that the “reboot 8” site had it’s URLs changed, making it appear that a lot of information from 2006, had either been lost, or, at best, made (too) difficult to locate.

“I want my Permalinks”, and I’m looking forward to the continued discussions and next year, where I suggest that the organisers make away with the “Wired style dot-oh-NO” numbering scheme, and just calls the event “reboot”!

Some background

“Reboot” is, according to the website:

[…]a community event for the practical visionaries who are at the intersection of digital technology and change all around us[…]

KAFFE&VINYL is one of the coolest new places in Copenhagen, located in Skydebanegade 4, Vesterbro (my old hood).

KAFFE&VINYL is a coffeshop combined with a record store that predominatly sells vinyl records and EXELLENT coffe. When I was there somebody bought some Ethiopian Jazz, it’s obviously a BIG seller, and you can understand why, really groovy, to me it sounded a lot like the best hip-hop acts like Madlib.

KAFFE&VINYL is HIGHLY recommended, but could be addictive, but he carries almost no hip-hop, which is wise because the owner has no knowledge of the genre.

While I was there, and suggested that he should carry some, especially since it, along with punk and electronica, is the genre that has done most for the survival of the vinyl format, a woman in the store remarked that it should be banned! How IGNORANT, it’s like saying Jazz is bad just because bad Jazz exists.

Eventually it turned out that he did indeed have some hip-hop, the owner Christian, isn’t a fundamentalist, he also carries CDs.